B-Greek: The Biblical Greek Forum

Tell us about interesting projects involving biblical Greek. Collaborative projects involving biblical Greek may use this forum for their communication - please contact jonathan.robie@ibiblio.org if you want to use this forum for your project.

I am writing a Perl software program to analyze Unicode Biblical Greek, based on the methodology I developed by hand in The Assumed Authorial Unity of Luke and Acts: A Reassessment of the Evidence (Cambridge University Press, 2009). I call this methodology "prose composition criticism" since (following Dionysius of Halicarnassus in his literary critical essays on prose composition) it deals with matters of style such as hiatus, dissonance, and other elements. Because I have just begun, my first hurdle is syllabification. The entire project, of which syllabification is only the first step, will undoubtedly take a good amount of time...

Patricia Walters wrote:I am writing a Perl software program to analyze Unicode Biblical Greek, based on the methodology I developed by hand in The Assumed Authorial Unity of Luke and Acts: A Reassessment of the Evidence (Cambridge University Press, 2009). I call this methodology "prose composition criticism" since (following Dionysius of Halicarnassus in his literary critical essays on prose composition) it deals with matters of style such as hiatus, dissonance, and other elements.

Can you say more about this methodology? Do you have any articles online?

Patricia Walters wrote:I am writing a Perl software program to analyze Unicode Biblical Greek, based on the methodology I developed by hand in The Assumed Authorial Unity of Luke and Acts: A Reassessment of the Evidence (Cambridge University Press, 2009). I call this methodology "prose composition criticism" since (following Dionysius of Halicarnassus in his literary critical essays on prose composition) it deals with matters of style such as hiatus, dissonance, and other elements.

Can you say more about this methodology? Do you have any articles online?

The methodology (as developed in my book) challenges the authorial unity of Luke and Acts by first looking at passages from Luke and Acts deemed most likely to be authorial, i.e., seams and summaries. Second, I collected actual examples of prose compositional elements from the works of ancient critics (Aristotle in Rhetoric Book 3, Pseudo-Demetrius, Dionysius of Halicarnassus, and Pseudo-Longinus). Stylistic elements important in antiquity include hiatus, dissonance, clause and sentence transitions, and others. I do not propose that the author of Luke or Acts used these elements; indeed, by not paying attention to them, the author/s would have likely written in a style for which no differences beyond normal, random stylistic variability would appear. Third and finally, I examined the Luke and Acts passages based on the prose compositional elements. This means I noted the occurrences of each element in the passages and entered the numbers in a statistical program (MINITAB). The result was that patterns of the prose compositional elements in Luke differed either highly significantly or significantly from those in Acts. I am able to say with a ninety-nine (or in one case, ninety-five) percent level of confidence that the author of the Luke passages was not the same as the author of the Acts passages.

For the full story, you will need to consult the book... Thank you for your interest.

Patricia Walters
Department of Religious Studies
Rockford College
Beloit College

Yes, I am settled on Perl. Many years ago (before entering the biblical scholarship field) I earned an advanced degree in computer science. Thus, I am resharpening my programming skills and Perl is a language that works well for text strings.

As for sharing the code, I will cross that bridge when I come to it... Right now, the focus is the project itself. Thank you for asking, though.

Patricia Walters
Department of Religious Studies
Rockford College
Beloit College

Patricia Walters wrote:This means I noted the occurrences of each element in the passages and entered the numbers in a statistical program (MINITAB). The result was that patterns of the prose compositional elements in Luke differed either highly significantly or significantly from those in Acts. I am able to say with a ninety-nine (or in one case, ninety-five) percent level of confidence that the author of the Luke passages was not the same as the author of the Acts passages.

Could you say something about your statistical model?

I expected differences between Luke and Acts would be based on purely descriptive statistics, where does the confidence level determination come in? I usually think of confidence levels in the context of sampling statistics.

Patricia Walters wrote:This means I noted the occurrences of each element in the passages and entered the numbers in a statistical program (MINITAB). The result was that patterns of the prose compositional elements in Luke differed either highly significantly or significantly from those in Acts. I am able to say with a ninety-nine (or in one case, ninety-five) percent level of confidence that the author of the Luke passages was not the same as the author of the Acts passages.

Could you say something about your statistical model?

I expected differences between Luke and Acts would be based on purely descriptive statistics, where does the confidence level determination come in? I usually think of confidence levels in the context of sampling statistics.

I used the Chi-Square Contingency Table Test, after numerous consultations with a statistics professor who guided me through the statistical maze. One example of a Null Hypothesis is this: "There is no difference in dissonance between the Luke and Acts passages beyond normal, random variability."

When the Chi-Square Contingency Table Test returns a P-Value indicating a highly significant result, another intrinsic explanation for the differences in dissonance is required. (Normal, random variability is not a sufficient explanation.) By logical deduction and a review of other possible explanations, I believe it must come down to different authorship.

A much fuller description is contained in the book...

Patricia Walters
Department of Religious Studies
Rockford College
Beloit College